Pitchfork interviews Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)...

just some thoughts i found intellectually intriguing.

Pitchfork: The lyrics to Sky Blue Sky-- especially in the first and last tracks-- kind of talk about relationships that have gone on maybe too long.

Jeff Tweedy: No, I think the songs are more about relationships that are endless. I wouldn't deny you your interpretation. I think both those songs are just kind of trying to express some acceptance of the idea that we don't really know what's going to happen and I'm going to try to do my part, my thing, as honestly and as with as much spirit as I can even in the face of that. The whole record to me is really, lyrically, geared towards being more accepting of ambiguity.

Pitchfork: In some of the essays you'd written in the Wilco book that you put out not long ago, you also say that it's not so much the listener's interpretation you're worried about, but if you're really straight up about what these songs mean they're less important to you because you don't have an out. I mean, is that true, are there songs that have shifted their meaning for you?

Jeff Tweedy: There are definitely songs that have shifted in meaning for me-- most of them. But I think that maybe at the time I gave those interviews or talked about it I didn't have as much faith in the ideas that you didn't need an out. And that maybe if I could talk to that version of myself now I would say that, you know, no matter how straight forward you think something is there's probably an angle that you're forgetting or not seeing that might become more or less important to you in the future. But it doesn't really matter, you know? What's the worst that could happen? You lose touch with the song and you don't sing it anymore. I don't think that that's a really high-risk situation.

Pitchfork: You could always write more.

Jeff Tweedy: [laughs] The world has enough.

Pitchfork: Can you think of one song that has shifted?

Jeff Tweedy: Honestly, a really big thing happened with most of the songs on A Ghost Is Born after the record came out, or before the record came out. I went through a life changing experience and there was a part of me that was very worried that a lot of that music wasn't going to be as resonant with me going out and touring on the record and trying to perform those songs. I was afraid that they came from a diseased mind or something that I didn't possess anymore. I found it the opposite. [It was] very comforting that most of those songs were way ahead of me and had reached some kind of understanding about the world that I hadn't become aware of yet. And I'm sure that's not so much the songs being able to do that but maybe a different point of view from myself being able to change the songs. But they were all sturdy enough to survive the transition. I feel good about that.

Pitchfork: So I guess you find ambiguity works for you as an artist.

Jeff Tweedy: I think it's the only intellectually honest way to be in life. To tell you the truth, I'm very, very suspicious of anybody that finds a belief system that they feel can explain it all, for themselves or for anybody else.